Tapping the high interest from private equity (PE) investors in taxi aggregator services, Bengaluru-based TaxiForSure is all set to raise its largest PE funding. It had raised its third round of funding in August this year. According to people in the know, the three-year-old firm is in talks with leading PE majors for raising $180-200 million. Avendus Capital is advising TaxiForSure in its latest fundraising.
TaxiForSure raised its first round of funding worth $4 million from Accel Partners, Helion Venture Partners and Blume Ventures in 2013. In May this year, it received $10 million from existing investors and raised another $30 million in August, led by Accel Partners (US), with participation from existing investors.
TaxiForSure was founded in 2011 by IIM -Ahmedabad graduates Raghunandan G and Aprameya Radhakrishna. It competes with Ola Cabs, EasyCabs, MeruCabs, MegaCabs, TabCabs and Uber.
TaxiForSure's co-founder Aprameya Radhakrishna said: "We are already well-funded and working on our proposed expansions. However, we have received interests from leading PE investors for additional investments and we are in talks with a few." He, however, refused to disclose the fund size and the percentage of stake dilution. It is not yet clear whether promoters will hold majority stake after the latest round of proposed funding.
According to Radhakrishna, TaxiForSure will see about 20,000 bookings a day by this month itself. In order to beat competition, it has slashed rates to Rs 49 for four km in Bengaluru. TaxiForSure is also present in Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Baroda, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Mysuru, Nagpur, Nashik, Pune, Rajkot and Surat. In line with other operators such as Ola and Meru, TaxiForSure had also launched prepaid wallet service for cashless taxi rides. It now plans to expand its presence into 52 cities by 2015.
An email questionnaire sent to Avendus Capital spokesperson did not elicit any responses.
Online cab booking service providers in India have seen a lot of interest from large PE and venture capital firms. Three-year-old Ola Cabs recently raised $210 million, led by Japan-based Softbank.
So far, Ola has raised about $280 million funding from various investors. The Indian radio taxi market is pegged at $8-$9 billion, while organised sector enjoys just five per cent market share.
YourCabs.com, Taxiguide and Savaari Car Rentals are funded by venture capital and angel investors in India. There are about 600,000 taxis in the unorganised sector.
